International Balloon Festival - Château-d’Oex

So this actually happened in the last week of january but i have been very lax with my updates. I apoligize....

So Chateaux D'Oex is in the southwest corner of da Schweiz. It took us a mere 3:30 hours to get to it but it was a beautiful train ride and almost a lazy day except the fact that we were actually going somewhere.

Apparently this festival is "International" as mentioned in the title, and expected 80 ballons from something like 20 different countries. We only went for the last weekend and we were hoping for blue skies for some nice pictures but we were thwarted, as usual.

Not only were they filling balloons and sending them up but they also dropped a dozen people from an airplane and they gracefully floated towards the ground, colored sails standing in stark contrast to the black and white landscape....

The well timed flight of some black birds. I just thought the tree was pretty. They do this type of thing with the trees a lot where they prune it until the branches look like grasping arthritic fingers. Especially noticeable in the winter.....

Souvenirs from the balloon festival. Cute little marmots.

The tobogganing hill in the center town. This appears to be the town church, right on top. We stopped in for a bit to warm up..... The tobogganing hill came right across the main throughfair to the balloon coral so you had to watch out for flying children.

A view of the festivities. A lion family. A cat in the background. That prone plaid thing was supposed to be a highland piper but unfortunately the weather was not cooperating so he never made it off the ground.

A regular balloon.

Rachel and the church.

A pruty family pictor.

The stripey balloon is a one man balloon so the guys just sits there in a harness. A little different. And note the ABB ballon in the lower right corner... A lot of interns work at ABB.


A couple more church shots...

And a monument to a ride around the world in a balloon!

Not a bad day apart from the travel time. We stopped in breifly at a cafe before we caught out train back for coffee and croissants. Simply di-vine. :)

SHKIING!

So i'm still here! I thought i'd just give a quit swiss slope update. These pictures were actually taken before Christmas on an Iaeste ski trip. 75 interns, with a lodge all to ourselves. it was and adventure for sure. The above picture is not the lodge in question, just a quintessential swiss chalet...


Waiting either for the bus or to go to the rental place.... most of the canadians who planned to be out every weekend made an effort to get their equipement here but i'm still renting when i go.


This is the european gondola. max ~200 people.... it was like riding a suspended train car up vertical cliff faces.

This is Caitlin pausing for the rest of our group. She found the john deer one peice she's sporting in her apartement and luckily it fit like a glove!


The view from the top of the glacier we were skiing. These glaciers, at least some, are actually open all year round...... The interesting thing, at least compared to home was the difference between seeing ranges in the distance, ie rockies. runnning in lines , mostly. buut here the mountains are just everywhere, as far as i could see...


Some amiable sled dogs we found on top of the mountain. beautiful colors and really freindly.

happy lunch.

I will try to bum some pictures of the most recent ski adventure from rachel since i didn't have my camera and try to add those at some point as well......

Wien

We arrived early-ish on the saturday morning and after dropping our luggage decided to head directly to the UN International Bazaar that was happening that weekend. It was located at the UN complex (surprise surprise) which was purtty neat!

The building above housed stalls from many countries selling wares and specialties of said countries.


This building was like a giant international food court. for lunch that day i sampled guacamole and nachos from mexico, a variation of moussaka, pita, tzatziki and delicious cheese from Cyprus, perogies from poland, samosas from india, and tiramisu from italy...

RAchel....


The Danube tower in Donaupark near the UN complex, it was just a short walk from the bazaar. The tower is 252m tall at the tip and the tallest freestanding structure in austria. It was built for a horticulture show in 1964, i thought this was excessive but it must have been a very important one......

The tower s viewing platform stands at 150m and is complete with a bungee jumping platform which we did NOT try out....

I'm not sure what this is but i thought it was intriguing...

The Viennese skyline from the Danube Tower viewing platform.

And again...

Nadia and Bianca, excited and startled respectively....

bestest friends!


Rachel

Feet!

St. Stephen's Cathedral at dusk. After leaving the Danube tower we headed downtown and cruises around Stephensplatz for a couple hours then stopped at a cafe and tried the famous Sachertorte. Sachertorte is described as a dry chocolate cake with apricot jam by wikipedia and was quite tasty.

St. Stephens again.


This is the Vienna Rathaus or city hall...

They don't limit their decorating to coniferous trees only!

Rathaus again, all dolled up for christmas.

Vienna is famous for it's christmas markets. They open in late november and run until chirstmas day. This christmas market is vienna's most elaborate and is located directly in front of the Rathaus.

Giganto-wreath.

The Parliament Buildings

Again,

and again



Me and parliament!!


A pigeon!


This is the corner of the natural history museum located in the Museum quarter of the city. This was also the location of the second Christmas Market that we visited.

This elephant was standing guard at the doors of the Natural History Museum.

Nadia

Another shot of the second christmas market.

As we were strolling through the Museum Quarter possibly on the way to or from trying out Weiner Schnitzel. We chose a really strange place and the waiter was strangely pushy, but schnitzel is not to bad!

We waited in line for a coupl hours on Sunday afternoon to get standing tickets to an opera. At the very economical price of 4 Euros we could see and hear everything and even had our own translators so we could keep up with the story!

I
nside the beautiful Vienna Operahouse

Outside Schönbrunn Palace on some grass that we clearly should not have been treading upon. The third Christmas market that we visited was located here in front of the palace.

This is the Gloriette which sits atop a 60m hill behind the palace overlooking the intricate grounds.



The Great Parterre (the lower portion of the garden)

The Neptune Well located between the Gloriette and the palace.

The Gloriette


Nadia

Bianca

Rachel

After strolling the primary shopping avenue, Mariahilferstrasse, and not finding to much Rachel and I needed to kill some time before heading back to the airport so we stopped at a little cafe that truthfully had the biggest menus i have ever seen anywhere, no question. Pictured above.
I got a special ham and cheese sandwich and they charged me an extra euro for the package of ketchup they put on my plate...... charming.